Posts Tagged ‘Ambani’

The Agassi confession: The Early Days Indiscretions Syndrome??

Posted: October 30, 2009 in Uncategorized
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It was shocking to read Agassi’s confession about having taken drugs earlier in his career, and lied about it too.

a. that as a player of his stature, he did it, and got away with it.

b. that just because he’s got a book out, he wants to come out and confess. Not really to repent, but to sell more books!

c. and he will pretty much run scot free. Where other athletes have had disastrous ends to their career, lost their medals, and lost financial rewards, when caught!

It is a shame really, considering that he was one of the more loved characters on court, had a fairytale wedding to another tennis ace, Steffi Graf, and was certainly an all-American favorite.

Is this a syndrome though? No, I am not referring to the drugs. I refer to the indiscretions, small or big, at the early stage of a career. Is it a done thing for many if not all very successful people?

Bending the law to one’s convenience. Cheating. Fraud – small or big. Are these often the start? And doing these, if one gets away, and breaks out, then the person “cleans up” his act??

We have all heard stories of Dhirubhai Ambani’s beginnings. The film Guru, clearly inspired on his life, shows many a maninpulation that was carried out. Perhaps with the best of intentions. But a crime nonetheless. And now we have a gigantic empire based on that foundation.

I heard a quote from J P Morgan, where he is supposed to have said that “Don’t ask me about my first million. I can explain every cent after that”.

Is that how it always is? Agassi, Ambani, Morgan – are these the inspirations for others, then?

And then, do the others know, where their “first million” comes? Or at what stage they need to stop taking the performance enhancing drugs??

Is it just a grey-grey world that we live in, where there is no white and no black, and depending on which side you look from, the grey may appear white enough for you?

What do you think?

Conspicuous by their silence in the Satyam saga

Posted: January 10, 2009 in Uncategorized
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The story of Ramalinga Raju’s admission to big time fraud generated massive reactions all across. Especially from within the industry. Some downright angry, others more studied, some sarcastic, some a little more generous.

We heard from the likes of Kumarmangalam Birla, Anand Mahindra, K. V. Kamath, Deepak Parekh, Narayam Murthy, scores of eminent financial analysts.

But conspicuous by their silence were India’s largest private sector head honchos, the Ambani brothers!! Was it a case of “those who live in glass houses cannot throw stones”?? When the biggest of corporate scams has occured, when the markets are getting tanked, investor confidence dips to an all time low, ordinarily, as India’s largest private sector corporations, would it have not merited a statement from them?

Interestingly, there is another analysis of the behaviour of the markets, on January 7th, after the Satyam news broke.

On that day, 13 Tata companies did better than the index, while 6 did worse.

All 3 Mukesh Ambani companies and all 6 Anil Ambani companies did worse than the index.

Real estate companies Unitech and DLF also did worse than the index.

Is there a message that the market was giving? In regards to corporate governance, on the day when that was the biggest reason for the freefall? Maybe, just maybe.. ?!